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The mission of the US Navy's fast attack submarines during the Cold War was a closely guarded secret for many years, but this look back at the period and the part played by those submarines in winning the war gives readers a close-up view of life in one of those subs, USS Sturgeon. McHale's memoir covers the years from 1967 to 1970, when as a teenager he was assigned to the nuclear submarine.
This is the first biography of Capt. Joe Rochefort, the Officer in Charge of Station Hypo the U.S. Navys decrypt unit at Pearl Harbor and his key role in breaking the Imperial Japanese Navys main code before the Battle of Midway. It brings together the disparate threads of Rocheforts life and career, beginning with his enlistment in the Naval Reserve in 1918 at age 17 (dropping out of high school and adding a year to his age). It chronicles his earliest days as a mustang (an officer who has risen from the ranks), his fortuitous posting to Washington, where he headed the Navys codebreaking desk at age 25, then, in another unexpected twist, found himself assigned to Tokyo to learn Japanese.This biography records Rocheforts surprising love-hate relationship with cryptanalysis, his joyful exit from the field, his love of sea duty, his adventure-filled years in the 30s as the right-hand man to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, and his reluctant return to codebreaking in mid-1941 when he was ordered to head the Navys decrypt unit at Pearl (Station Hypo).The book focuses on Rocheforts inspiring leadership of Hypo, recording first his frustrating months in late 1941 searching for Yamamotos fleet, then capturing a guilt-ridden Rochefort in early 1942 mounting a redemptive effort to track that fleet after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor . It details his critical role in May 1942 when he and his team, against the bitter opposition of some top Navy brass, concluded Midway was Yamamotos invasion target, making possible a victory regarded by many as the turning point in the Pacific War.The account also tells the story of Rocheforts ouster from Pearl, the result of the machinations of key officers in Washington, first to deny him the Distinguished Service Medal recommended by Admiral Nimitz, then to effect his removal as OIC of Hypo. The book reports his productive final years in the Navy when he supervises the building of a floating drydock on the West Coast, then, back in Washington, finds himself directing a planning body charged with doing spade work leading to the invasion of Japan. The Epilogue narrates the postwar effort waged by Rocheforts Hypo colleagues to obtain for him the DSM denied in 1942a drive that pays off in 1986 when President Reagan awards him the medal posthumously at a White House ceremony attended by his daughter and son. It also explores Rocheforts legacy, primarily his pioneering role at Pearl in which, contrary to Washingtons wishes, he reported directly to Commander in Chief, US Fleet, providing actionable intelligence without any delays and enabling codebreaking to play the key role it did in the Battle of Midway.Ultimately, this book is aimed at bringing Joe Rochefort to life as the irreverent, fiercely independent and consequential officer that he was. It assumes his career cant be understood without looking at his entire life. It seeks to capture the interplay of policy and personality, and the role played by politics and personal rifts at the highest levels of Navy power during a time of national crisis. This bio emerges as a history of the Navys intelligence culture.
* The daring exploits of the first special forces unit of WWII * World War II tale of adventure * Available in paperback for the first time The first special service forces of WWII were known as the Devil's Brigade. Ferocious and stealthy combatants, they were handpicked U.S.
This is the story of a little-known Soviet-Japanese conflict that influenced the outbreak and shaped the course of the Second World War. In the summers of 1937, 1938, and 1939, Japan and the Soviet Union fought a series of border conflicts. The first was on the Amur River days before the outbreak of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War. In 1938, division-strength units fought a bloody 2-week battle at Changkufeng near the Korea-Manchuria-Soviet border. The Nomonhan conflict (May-September 1939) on the Manchurian-Mongolian frontier, was a small undeclared war, with over 100,000 troops, 500 tanks and aircraft, and 30,000-50,000 killed and wounded. In the climactic battle, August 20-31, the Japanese were annihilated. This coincided precisely with the conclusion of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (August 23, 1939) the green light to Hitler's invasion of Poland and the outbreak of WW II one week later. These events are connected. This book relates these developments and weaves them together.From May through July 1939, the conflict was provoked and escalated by the Japanese, whose assaults were repulsed by the Red Army. In August, Stalin unleashed a simultaneous military and diplomatic counter strike. Zhukov, the Soviet commander, launched an offensive that crushed the Japanese. At the same time, Stalin concluded an alliance with Hitler, Japan's nominal ally, leaving Tokyo diplomatically isolated and militarily humiliated.The fact that these events coincided was no coincidence. Europe was sliding toward war as Hitler prepared to attack Poland. Stalin sought to avoid a two-front war against Germany and Japan. His ideal outcome would be for the fascist/militarist capitalists (Germany, Italy, and Japan) to fight the bourgeois/democratic capitalists (Britain, France, and perhaps the United States), leaving the Soviet Union on the sidelines while the capitalists exhausted themselves. The Nazi-Soviet Pact pitted Germany against Britain and France and allowed Stalin to deal decisively with an isolated Japan, which he did at Nomonhan.Zhukov won his spurs at Nomonhan and won Stalins confidence to entrust him with the high command in 1941, when he halted the Germans at the gates of Moscow with reinforcements from the Soviet Far East. The Far Eastern reserves were deployed westward in the autumn of 1941 when Moscow learned that Japan would not attack the Soviet Far East, because it decided to expand southward to seize the oil-rich Dutch East Indies, which led them to attack Pearl Harbor.The notorious Japanese officer, TSUJI Masanobu, who played a central role at Nomonhan, was an important figure in the decision to attack Pearl Harbor. In 1941, Col. Tsuji was a staff officer at Imperial General HQ. Because of the U.S. oil embargo on Japan, the Imperial Navy wanted to seize the Dutch East Indies. Only the U.S. Pacific Fleet stood in the way. Some army leaders, however, wanted to attack the U.S.S.R., avenging the defeat at Nomonhan while the Red Army was being smashed by the German blitzkreig. Tsuji, an influencial leader, backed the Navy position that led to Pearl Harbor. According to senior Japanese officials, Tsuji was the most influential Army advocate of war with the United States. Tsuji later wrote that his experience of Soviet fire-power at Nomonhan convinced him not to take on the Russians in 1941
America's second war against Iraq differed notably from its first. Operation Desert Storm was a limited effort by coalition forces to drive out those Iraqi troops who had seized Kuwait six months before. In contrast, the major combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 was a more ambitious undertaking aimed at decisively ending Saddam Hussein's rule. The toppling of Hussein's regime ended the iron rule of an odious dictator who had brutalized his people for more than 30 years. Yet the inadequate resourcing with which that goal was pursued showed that any effective plan for a regime takedown must include due hedging against the campaign's likely aftermath in addition to simply seeing to the needs of major combat. That said, despite the failure of the campaign's planners to underwrite the first need adequately, those who conducted the three-week offensive in pursuit of regime change performed all but flawlessly, thanks in considerable part to the mostly unobserved but crucial enabling contributions of allied air power.
Two dissimilar midshipmen at the US Naval Academy personify the sense of conflict and transition afflicting the academy as it shifts from being a military training school to a college for nuclear engineers and technicians.
Now in paperback for the first time, this collection of biographical essays delves into the careers of thirteen colourful naval leaders who guided the US Navy through four turbulent decades of transition. Interpretive in approach, each essay emphasises facets of the officer's personality or aspects of his career that made lasting contributions to the navy.
`Superb! An intimate look at the way a war was won.' - Tom Clancy `They feared the enemy together and put their faith in the only place they could, in their boat and in their skipper. These brought them through and against the toughest anti-submarine warfare measures and the greatest damage reported by any submarine of our side.
My Men Are My Heroes introduces its readers to a living standard of Marine Corps esprit de corps and military decorum. Sergeant Major Bradley Kasal, the pride of Iowa, is a small town boy who wanted to be a United States Marine even before a poster perfect Marine recruiter marched into his high school gym and offered him a challenge Kasal couldnt resist. Two decades later Kasal stood stiffly at attention, one leg literally shot in half, while the Navy Cross was pinned to his chest. Kasal is currently the Sergeant Major of the Infantry School at Camp Pendleton, CA until he retires in May, 2012.After a brief visit to his childhood Kasals story quickly gathers steam, introducing the reader to his early Marine career; adventure filled years that earned him the name Robo-Grunt from men who dont offer accolades easily. Kasal uses his experience climbing the ranks to illustrate how Marines grow, and how they are shaped by the uncompromising attitudes of the officers and non-coms charged with turning young Marines into tigers.Kasals adventures culminate in Iraq. By now he is 1st Sergeant Kasal, ramrodding Kilo Company, 3/1, a rifle company in 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, the mighty Thunder Third that would cover itself with glory in 2004. Two days into Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003 Kilo is ordered to hold open a critical road between two bridges that Saddams fierce Fedayeen Saddam were just as determined to take away. Kasal makes in his stand on that road, literally standing tall amidst fierce gunfire, demonstrating the kind of leadership Kilo Company needed to get the job done. Kilos fight was part of the first big test of Marine Corps combat capabilities in the second Iraqi War and the only major engagement the Marine Corps fought during the heady days of the Drive Up to Baghdad. When it was over the so-called Ninjas of the Fedayeen Saddam were smashed. A week later Kasal was in Baghdad, welcomed with open arms by the exuberant population.A year later 3/1 was back to Iraq, in Anbar Province, the epicenter of the brutal war now raging in the former tribal stronghold of Saddam and his henchmen. The smiling faces that had greeted 3/1 the year before were gone. Kasal is the 1st Sergeant of Weapons Company, 3/1, the armored fist of a light infantry battalion. After four months of ambushes, IEDs, and deadly skirmishes 3/1 is ordered into Fallujah, to take the ancient city back from Al Qaeda and the foreign fighters who had turned the ancient City of Mosques into a fortress. It is there, in November, 2004 that the Thundering Third entered into Marine Corps legend and Kasal into the Pantheon of Heroes for his actions during the most savage battle the Marines fought in the Iraq War.At a non-descript house in a walled neighborhood in Fallujah Kasal, at the time accompanying a squad of Kilos riflemen into a contested house, becomes involved in a close-quarter duel with fanatical Chechen fighters. The fight rages throughout the house, at times Marines and the foreign fighters were exchanging rifle fire and grenades at ranges of less than 10 feet. For almost two hours the squad is trapped inside the house. During the brawl Kasal is shot seven times, almost loses his leg when it is nearly severed from his body, and sustains 47shrapnel wounds when he used his body to shield a wounded Marine laying next to him from an enemy grenade. In the skirmish, forever known as the Hell House fight, Kasal was awarded the Navy Cross, the nations second highest award for heroism.
Many regard this work as the definitive account of a controversial conflict of the war in the Pacific, the June 1944 battle known as the "e;Great Marianas Turkey Shoot."e; Drawing on ten years of research and told from the viewpoint of the fliers and sailors who were on the firing line, William T. Y'Blood leads the reader through every stage of the battle, from the dogfights to the persistent attacks on the Japanese carriers to the frantic efforts of the returning fliers to land on friendly carriers. He takes the battle from the initial planning through the invasion of the Marianas and the recriminations that followed, describing Admiral Spruance's decision to allow U.S. forces to remain on the defensive and giving blow-by-blow details of the action. This intensive study of what many believe to be a major turning point in the Pacific War has remained an important reference since it was first published in 1981.
For professional aviators and aviation buffs alike, this biography brings to life the legendary aircraft that scored the highest kill ratio of any U.S. fighter aircraft in the Vietnam War. The book is filled with authentic recreations of Crusader-MiG fights and vivid descriptions of the people and events that are part of the F-8 story.
* Autobiography of a fighter and test pilot during World War II and Vietnam * Among first marines to fly a helicopter * First Marine to be named to the Navy Carrier Aviation Test Pilots Hall of Honor First published in 1994, this stirring autobiography of a fighter and test pilot takes readers full throttle through Carl's imposing list ...
`A compelling portrait of a quiet hero, of the racial climate between 1926 and 1959, and of the last days of propeller-driven naval aviation.' - Booklist Jesse Leroy Brown was born in 1926 to sharecroppers in segregated southern USA.
A leading historian of both the American Civil War and American naval history takes a fresh look at Franklin Buchanan, the U.S. Naval Academy's first superintendent who went on to become the Confederate Navy's first admiral. Buchanan's resignation from the U.S.
Texas lost many volunteers during its hard-won fight for independence from Mexico, but one harrowing episode stands out. Following a one-sided battle on the prairie near Coleto Creek, two hundred and fifty mostly American prisoners were marched back to the presidio at Goliad where they were joined by more than two hundred others.
In a wartime Navy of giant carriers and battleships, tiny wooden subchasers did not command much attention. Yet these 110-foot warships, manned mostly by inexperienced reservists, performed vital chores for the fleet everywhere there was action in World War II. They led landing craft right up to the assault beaches, protected them from fire, fought off air attacks, swept for mines, laid down smoke screens, and patrolled the sea for killer submarines. One such doughty little ship, subchaser 692, is the subject of this book.Told by 692's commanding officer Ed Stafford, then a twenty-four-year-old lieutenant (jg) on his first warship, the story follows the thirty-man crew as they scrapped their way through the war, including action during the July 1943 invasion of Sicily. Filled with humor, tension, poignancy, and moments of high drama, this volume leaves today's readers with a vivid image of life on a very small ship in a very big war.
Applauded by the public and revered by the men who served under him, Adm. William F. Halsey was one of the leading American personalities of World War II.
On 26 February 1991, cavalry troops of Cougar Squadron, the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, charged out of a sandstorm during Operation Desert Storm and caught Iraqs Republican Guard Corps in the open desert along the North-South grid line of a military map referred to as the 73 Easting. Taken by surprise, the defending Iraqi armor brigade was swept away in salvos of American tank and missile fire in what became the U.S. Armys largest tank battle since World War II. Douglas Macgregor, the man who trained and led Cougar Squadron into battle, recounts two stories. One is the inspiring tale of the valiant American soldiers, sergeants, lieutenants, and captains who fought and won the battle. The other is a story of failed generalship, one that explains why Iraqs Republican Guard escaped, ensuring that Saddam Husseins regime survived and Americas war with Iraq dragged on. Certain to provoke debate, this is the latest book from the controversial and influential military veteran whose two previous books, Breaking the Phalanx and Transformation Under Fire, are credited with influencing thinking and organization inside Americas ground forces and figure prominently in current discussions about military strategy and defense policies. Its fast-moving battle narrative, told from the vantage point of Macgregors Abrams tank, and its detailed portraits of American soldiers, along with vivid descriptions of the devastating technology of mounted warfare, will captivate anyone with a taste for adventure as well as an interest in contemporary military history.
Called a definitive account when first published in 1980 and the winner of several book awards, this revised and expanded edition is available now for the first time in paperback. Tyrone G. Martin, the author, was captain of the USS Constitution during the nation''s bicentennial celebrations. After decades of research and study, Martin was able to confirm that the innovative diagonal riders which ensured the frigate''s long life were present at the ship''s launching. He also provides details about the famous ship''s participation in battles that have long been ignored or glossed over in official reports. Pictorial battle diagrams are included.The book not only tells Constitution''s complete story, but also presents a picture of life in the U.S. Navy during the nineteenth century-its proud moments as well as its concerns, attitudes, and tensions. Fascinating details are presented on the organization, care, feeding, and disciplining of the crew, and on events that involved such famous names in early American naval history as Edward Preble and Stephen Decatur. Just as previous editions were sought-after as sources of pleasure and information, this new edition will appeal to everyone who enjoys a good sea story and to serious students and sailing ship buffs seeking a reliable reference.
The Naval Academy's culture is a unique and sometimes baffling phenomenon to the outside world, but with this newly updated guide in hand relatives and friends of midshipmen will find answers to all the questions they might have about Academy life.
Hailed as one of the finest examples of aviation research, this comprehensive 1984 study presents a detailed and scrupulously accurate operational history of carrier-based air warfare. From the earliest operations in the Pacific through the decisive Battle of Midway, it offers a narrative account of how ace fighter pilots like Jimmy Thach and Butch O'Hare and their skilled VF squadron mates - called the "e;first team"e; - amassed a remarkable combat record in the face of desperate odds. Tapping both American and Japanese sources, historian John B. Lundstrom reconstructs every significant action and places these extraordinary fighters within the context of overall carrier operations. He writes from the viewpoint of the pilots themselves, after interviewing some fifty airmen from each side, to give readers intimate details of some of the most exciting aerial engagements of the war. At the same time he assesses the role the fighter squadrons played in key actions and shows how innovations in fighter tactics and gunnery techniques were a primary reason for the reversal of American fortunes. After more than twenty years in print, the book remains the definitive account and is being published in paperback for the first time to reach an even larger audience.
The Lost Battalion of Tet '68 looks critically into what went wrong when an infantry battalion in Vietnam during Tet '68 was ordered to attack a large North Vietnamese force near Hue without artillery or air support. The American soldiers knew they were facing overwhelming odds, their death and the battalion's destruction a near certainty.
The novel, Mister Roberts, was an instant hit after being published in 1946 and was quickly adapted for the stage and screen. The title character, a Lieutenant Junior Grade naval officer, defends his crew against the petty tyranny of the ship's commanding officer during World War II.
The amphibious assault against a defended beach is fully explored from the perspective of the defender.
Winner of the Royal United Services Institute Westminster Medal for Military Literature `To read a comprehensive history of the technical, military and political aspects of the Cold War, based on documents from the two super powers, written by a scholar who is free of bias, is something I never thought I would be able to do.
Fighter pilot Butch O'Hare became one of America's heroes in 1942 when he saved the carrier Lexington in what has been called the most daring single action in the history of combat aviation: he single-handedly shot down five attacking Japanese bombers and severely damaged a sixth.
When Sharon Hanley Disher entered the U.S. Naval Academy with eighty other young women in 1976, she helped end a 131-year all-male tradition at Annapolis.
This now-classic tale of SEAL combat action in Vietnam marked Dick Couch's debut as a novelist in 1990 and sold more than 100,000 copies. Hailed for its authenticity, it was the first novel about Navy SEALs to be written by one of their own. Couch, a SEAL platoon leader in the Mekong Delta from 1970 to 1971, includes gripping descriptions of dangerous operations that continue to attract a broad audience, with many bestselling authors calling his book a sensational story they can't put down. This new paperback edition features a foreword by the former head of the Naval Special Warfare Command.
the USS Guardfish during World War II * Fascinating study of the only sinking of a US warship by submarine friendly fire Claude Conner weaves a compelling tale of his experiences as a radar technician in the Pacific aboard the USS Guardfish, one of the Navy's most successful World War II submarines.
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